]]>http://www.twocentsandacookie.com/an-octave-highers-screenshots-game-art-major-spoiler/feed/1199An Octave Higher Game Reviewhttp://www.twocentsandacookie.com/an-octave-higher-game-review/
http://www.twocentsandacookie.com/an-octave-higher-game-review/#commentsSun, 07 Feb 2016 08:56:31 +0000http://www.twocentsandacookie.com/?p=192I stumbled upon An Octave Higher by Kidalang when it was on sale for $2.99 on Steam. Being a visual novel with fine graphics at first glance, the game looked promising just like any other visual novels out there. It’s fair to say that I didn’t have very high expectation. Visual novel is a rather underdeveloped genre, after all, especially outside of Japan. It consistently provides a nice and relaxing source of entertainment but I never really expect a masterpiece.

The plot starts off like any stereotypical fantasy literature—a universe where magic is possible with seemingly lighthearted plot of a guy (Franz) trying to help a girl (Elise) fix a piano despite the discouragement from almost everyone around them. The characters initially appear stereotypical. The jerk, the smart guy, the always-positive girl… Cotton-candy kind of plot, doesn’t it? At first glance, the game looks like it has all the cliches you’d find in a young adult book. It really seemed that by the end of the story, at least in the good ending, that the piano would get fixed despite the odds. Because magic. Because love. And stuff.

Spoiler: It remains broken, just like my heart. ;w;

Boy, was I wrong. Of all 6 endings, I initially found only the 4 endings in part 1. (See the walkthroughs for all endings here.) With only few choices throughout each playthroughs, all 4 stories are sufficiently entertaining but lacking in intrigue and content value. Once I discovered “Amadeus” storyline and character development came into play, though… It’s amazing how the quality of the plot seriously skyrocketed. It’s gotten unexpectedly deep and thought-provoking.

Consistent with its low popularity, visual novels are so limited in number out there. Most are centered around love/erotica with flimsy, one-dimensional characters and little plot if any at all. It’s so rare to see social issues getting featured or even mentioned. An Octave Higher breaks the trope by tying in the concepts of revolution, class conflict, and even controversies in the fields of psychology and academics. Being set in a fictional universe it is, but it mirrors a lot of elements and dynamics of what’s happening in the real world today.

Capitalism and revolution are prominent theme in this game, especially in part 2. Despite being dangerously tricky topics to feature, this game pulls it off splendidly in my opinion. And that’s something I really don’t say lightly. I’ve always felt annoyed whenever this “rich vs. poor” topic gets talked about in the media because, often times, it’s just another case of selective blindness. One side always gets portrayed as “good” people who can do no wrong and are doing the best they can in their circumstances while the other side as the “bad” people who are always looking to take advantage of the former. And whatever solution (in a form of promoting one system over the other) always gets portrayed so idealistically by their agents, like there couldn’t possibly be negative unintended consequences at all. Lacking a firm stance on pretty much everything I am, but my view always remains that if there existed such a thing as a perfect system where everyone can win, we’d already be in it.

An Octave Higher strikes a fine balance by leading us through the mind and rationalizing process of the capitalists while at the same time managing not to minimize the pain and unfair treatment experienced by the poor, instead of either simply portraying all capitalists as greedy exploitative bastards or all poor as lazy but otherwise all-capable humans who want to be spoon-fed everything while contributing nothing. Having Elise, who is a part of both worlds, as the main narrator in part 2 is an excellent choice in my eyes. Like most people (who probably haven’t really thought that much about the issue), she struggles through the story as she grows past her black and white beliefs, and steadily realizes the complexity of social problems. Her character is so “pure” in a sense that she maintains an aura of light and everlasting optimism, contrasting with the otherwise dark and difficult theme. After a rollercoaster of emotions, the final scenes in the “true ending” nearly made me cry. And despite the amount of fiction books I’ve read including the really good ones that I’m more invested in, I’ve never ever cried over fictional stories. For this game to have such an effect makes it undoubtedly a piece of art.

Another thing worth noting is that the magic system in this game is very impressive, even though you can’t use any spells. All those formulas and terms… It’s clear that the developers put a lot of time and effort into them.

Background music in visual novel tends to get really daunting after a while (who would want to listen to the same song over and over for two hours straight?) but I find the background music in this game to be very calming. The sound effects are neatly composed as well.

That concludes my commentary for this game. In short, it’s much better than I expected, with a lot of thought-provoking concepts built in, as well as beautiful graphics and well-developed universe and characters. English visual novels are already tough to come by but this one is worth your time, especially if you are a bit of a millennial hipster or an intellectual snob fascinated by social issues and seeking a little more depth in your entertainment. I’d say this is one of the best visual novels out there that I’ve played… and I’ve played way too many of them. I have not encountered a bug either. The gameplay is very smooth and relaxing. Highly recommended.

]]>http://www.twocentsandacookie.com/an-octave-higher-game-review/feed/1192(Mild Spoiler) Life Is Strange Game Reviewhttp://www.twocentsandacookie.com/spoiler-alert-life-is-strange-game-review/
http://www.twocentsandacookie.com/spoiler-alert-life-is-strange-game-review/#respondSat, 07 Nov 2015 03:59:15 +0000http://www.twocentsandacookie.com/?p=90Once I saw this screenshot, I just knew I had to play the game. There was no other alternative.

Life Is Strange feels like an interactive visual novel/adventure, but it’s also its own genre in a way because there are so few games like it. (Let me know in the comment section if you can think of any. I’d appreciate it very much.) I really enjoyed the narration style which switches between cinematic clips and letting you explore the world in almost open-world style. This game is very atmospheric, thanks to the artistic visual (completely hand-drawn according to the game makers) combined with the storyline and excellent choice of soundtracks. I’m still loving a lot of tracks from each and every episode. And Jose Gonzalez is quickly becoming my new favorite artist.

I’m still questioning whether the choices you make in game actually change much anything, considering how episode 5 ends. But still, it’s neat to see how your choices end up changing the dialogue and actions with other characters. This game is still very enjoyable despite their being only 2 endings. It really is a case of “it’s the journey that matters, not the destination” type of thing. The rewind mechanic adds a unique element to the gameplay. You can’t save the game, you can only rewind. The only complaint I have about this is that this game sometimes bugs out if I try to skip seen dialogue, which means I have to restart the game and listen to the same dialogue over again.

As far as characters go, all of them are too one-dimensional for me at first. (Max, the shy “weird” hipster girl; Victoria, the snobbish “Mean GIrl-esque” bully; Nathan, the spoiled rich kid; Warren, the “friendzoned by my female friend” science nerd… I could just go on and on.) But as more episodes come out, there appears to be more depth to their characters. It’s not G. R. R. M.’s quality of character development, but then again, we are only dealing with high schoolers, I suppose.

The pacing is nice in my opinion. It’s pretty fast-paced, considering that the game pans over a span of merely 5 days, but it’s packed nicely in each episode and not rushed. Though I find certain parts to be awfully tedious, like the part where you have to find bottles in episode 2 and the hide-and-seek in episode 5.

A game wouldn’t be worth featuring here if it didn’t have a sense of humor. If you are the type of player who likes to see every little text and detail like I am, then you probably notice little interesting things going on in the game, like that guy who put up a poster at Max’s school offering to give reward to anyone who can return his laptop full of cat pictures to him. If you look around, you will notice that there’s also a flyer of someone trying to sell a laptop full of cat pictures. (Jerk.) Also, be sure to read Max’s journal and text messages in episode 5 while she is stuck in her nightmares. And while it may seem tedious, “Look” at objects. I died when I saw this paper ball:

Damn.

You should play this game if…

…You like indie games.

…You enjoy game with good graphics and great soundtracks.

…You love story-rich, atmospheric games that make you feel like you can be absorbed in their world.

…You find it fun to go around interacting with every little thing just to hear the narration on it.

You should not play this game if…

…You hate teenage, high school tropes.

…You find it annoying when a game requires you to interact with insignificant objects in order to progress the story.

…You find the mismatched lip syncing to be too distracting. (The voice acting is great, though.)

My rating: 9.5/10. I would have given it a full score, had they fix the bug and eliminate certain parts of gameplay. But overall, Life Is Strange is a gem and it takes gaming to a new genre of which I would VERY happy to see more of.

]]>http://www.twocentsandacookie.com/spoiler-alert-life-is-strange-game-review/feed/09080 Days Game Reviewhttp://www.twocentsandacookie.com/80-days-game-review/
http://www.twocentsandacookie.com/80-days-game-review/#respondSat, 10 Oct 2015 05:23:49 +0000http://www.twocentsandacookie.com/?p=58It’s rare for me to spend money on any game, much less at full price, unless I really like it. So when 80 Days popped up on my Steam recommendations, I didn’t expect much from it. Despite of my initial skepticism, the preview images were quite appealing. I bought it at full price (the first time ever) and realized half way through that I had been searching for this exact game a year ago, but this was the first time it was available on PC (and Mac also).

80 Days is an interactive visual novel game inspired by a (physical) novel of the same name by Jules Verne. (You even get to meet Jules Verne almost as soon as the game starts, and he will comment that your name, Passepartout, is weird.) In this game, you play as a valet of an annoyingly posh British gentleman, making choices of where to travel and trying to return to London in 80 days. I’m a huge fan of this genre. But despite the fact that it’s the visual graphics that make a game in my opinion (and this game lacks it), I’m still in love with this game already. It’s highly interactive, impressively story-rich, and even subtly humorous.

Poor Marco ;_;

Go anywhere and develop your story. What is it going to be? If you don’t want to listen to that mean captain talk about a pet penguin named Marco (R.I.P.), you can also go to the North Pole and start a romance with a much nicer captain who does not heartlesslybetray their own pet and eat it! What is wrong with you?!

Then, when you find him after he dumps you unceremoniously, you can choose one of these three options. Tough choice, honestly.

There is a great variety of where you can go and stories you can encounter. On top of my head, so far, I’ve participated in solving a murder case, assisting in a birth delivery while on a ship, smoking opium then joining a circus, finding Nemo, punching Jesse James to save my master’s honor, meeting my alter ego …and I’m sure there is more to come.

You should play this game if…

…You like visual novels.

…You love story-rich games with high replay value. (This game probably has the highest replay value I’ve ever seen.)

…You are a fan of Jules Verne and/or 80 Days (book).

You should not play this game if…

…You hate reading long text in game. (Seriously, you will HATE this game if that’s the case.)

…You hate games that don’t have very rich graphics.

…You find historical and/or steampunk genre unbearable.

My rating: 9.5/10 — Very enjoyable game with simple, sleek graphics and optimum replay value. Great price for the quality and suitable for pretty much everyone including beginners. Plus, I haven’t found a single bug after 41 hours of gameplay, for which I am grateful.